Pundit Hypocrisy

I have been trying to figure out what it is that has me all grumpy today whenever I listen to the experts and pundits, particularly in the 'World Wide Leader' on tv and on the radio. I finally figured it out. I think they're hypocrites.

Probably the one that got me going the most was listening to one of them, I believe it was Mel Kiper (since I was working my real job at the time I didn't get a chance to take notes) who was complaining about how the problem with the current BCS system is that it doesn't allow for any Cinderella's. You won't see a story like the Colorado Rockies.

And yet, all this whining about things like that, I also noticed most of the punditry was just giddy over the loss of South Florida. On one hand they complain about how the BCS is stacked against certain programs, but every time a program like South Florida makes enough waves to actually prove them all wrong, there is almost full scale rejoicing when they lose.

I'll admit, I wanted to see South Florida to win out just to prove that a team like that could get into the championship game. If they had won out, there is no question in my mind they'd be in there (even if LSU wins out as well, though they trail Auburn as I write this). In fact, I believe the odd man out would be Ohio State.

As I see it, the Punditry (sheesh, sounds like some conspiracy theory) doesn't want to see a team like South Florida succeed in the end, for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, it proves them wrong. Second, such a success gives credibility to the BCS. They can't have that because their mantra is that college football needs a major playoff system.

I'll digress for a moment... one of the great blogs in college football has a classic name: Every Day Should Be Saturday. That name to me sums up what is awesome and unique about college football: It's like every saturday matters. Every week there is at least a game or two that has some kind of major implication. And then, when a Stanford can upset a USC, that even says it more how important every game is. But if you were to have a blog like that in college basketball, the name of that blog would have to be Every Month Should Be March. Because no one really cares that much about the rest of the season. Personally, I'd rather have EDSBS than EMSBM.

End of Digression.

Okay, end of THAT digression, I'm off to another digression although it's more on point than the last digression.

I'm loving a couple of things about this weeks games. The Punditry as I'm really starting to enjoy calling the major college football media has really enjoyed making a big point about the strength of the PAC 10 Conference. But, when a team that was kinda beat up on by some pretty weak non conference opponents ends up so far more or less dominating the conference (see UCLA) doesn't that say something about the true strength of the conference. Okay now, you LSU fans, I see you shouting in agreement because you've had a Pac10 beef ever since the year you split with USC. But my other comment has to do with LSU. I think you guys have a great team this year, but i guess my comment is that the Punditry seems to have branded you guys as the second coming of (insert name of favorite dominant dynasty type college football team here). And hey, I'm actually getting back to where I was going to begin with. But one of the big things you heard the Punditry howling about this week has been that a once beaten LSU would end up deserving the title game more than an undefeated South Florida team, and part of that argument ends up being you have to establish that LSU is such an awesome team. LSU is a great team, but.... a team of the status they want to make them out to be wouldn't be sitting there with one loss and fighting for their life to avoid a 2nd loss. Auburn (remember that team that lost at home to South Florida?) is definitely looking like the better team at this point. (And you can probably guess that I'm still gloating over the fact that the Punditry had determined, I mean anointed, early on in the season that LSU, USC, and Oklahoma would all run the tables and we'd have another BCS mess.

The fact is that the experts love to sensationalize. But when it all comes down to it, they don't really know that much more than the rest of us ordinary Joe's. And I'll admit, it's kinda sweet to see them be so wrong.